mguhlin

Backing Up GoogleDocs via Linux #CLI (Updated)

Adapted from Image Sources:
http://goo.gl/IGC6j and http://goo.gl/7Wf6M
Although it’s pretty straightforward to backup GoogleDocs these days, I decided I wanted to type some esoteric command and have it download all my GoogleDocs…I could set this up to run automatically, too. 
Not surprisingly, someone else has already figured this out. These are my notes on their process…that works! Yay!
Step 1 – Install right stuff (BTW, I am on Lubuntu 11.10)

sudo apt-get install mono-runtime libmono-winforms2.0-cil mono-devel

Step 2 – Download GDocBackup

You want the GDocBackupCMD.zip file available here (there’s a Windows version, too!)

Step 3 – Unzip the zip file to your home directory (/home/username/gdoc)

unzip GDoc*CMD.zip

and put files in your /home/username/gdoc folder
Step 4 – Make a data folder to store your googledocs

mkdir /home/username/gdoc/data

Step 5 – Switch to the gdoc folder

cd ~/gdoc

Step 6 – Customize the Command Line options to Run the GDocBackup

mono ./GDocBackupCMD.exe -mode=backup -bypassHttpsCertChecks -username=YourUsername -password=YourPassword -destDir=/home/username/gdoc/data/ -docF=pdf -sprsF=csv -presF=ppt -drawF=pdf

Other command line options are available online here.
That’s pretty much it! Your files will start to download. My files are in process. My only concern is the password being sent over cleartext . And, of course, there are other ways to get a zipped file of your GoogleDocs.
You can see what the files/folders look like in general with this screenshot:
Some folder titles have been pixelized/blurred.
One problem I see with this approach is that word processing documents get pulled down as PDFs rather than Word Docs or open document (ODF). I wonder if changing the option -docF=pdf to –docF=odf would work. The benefit is obviously that you’d be able to edit your Word documents using a free, open source program like AbiWord or LibreOffice.

Update: Apparently, changing -docF=pdf to –docF=odf does NOT work, but this option does:

-docF=doc

The revised command would be as follows:

mono ./GDocBackupCMD.exe -mode=backup -bypassHttpsCertChecks -username=YourUsername -password=YourPassword -destDir=/home/username/gdoc/data/ -docF=doc -sprsF=csv -presF=ppt -drawF=pdf

Hoping this is helpful!
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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

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